My attitude and yours seem to be rather parallel. I retired in 2008 after working while attending school off and on for more than 40 years. I was "gung ho" work and really had no desire to retire--but did after quite a bit of pressure from friends and family. One of my requirements of retirement was that I would go back to work if I became bored. I must say, though, that I have totally amazed myself and my friends and family. I find that I do miss the people with whom I worked but don't really miss the process. I work quite a bit with Producer, Photoshop, and other peripheral programs completing shows for clients as well as friends and family. I stay busy and most days wonder where the time went; I must say that I have to agree with other colleagues who retired and said they didn't know how they found the time to work!

Good luck with your new software; hope the disappointment is fleeting.

I had used Photoshop for a long time...perhaps since version 4 or 5, I can't remember now and i still have Photoshop 7 because it came with Image Ready which I like very much. I was moved up to Photoshop CS4 when sonny boy and hubby bought me a copy for last year's Mama's Day.

I will be getting Producer soon. It is not really expensive so maybe I will hint-hint for either Easter (are we supposed to get a gift for Easter?), my birthday or at the latest, Mother's Day. I just finished a presentation my husband will be taking to the Saudi embassy next week in Washington. I am hoping he'll get some kudos in Washington so that Producer will be easier to come to Mama, ha!... I am mostly a graphic and photography person...Since it is winter it is really hard to do some aerial photography (too cold in the butt to venture out flying). I do not think I will be really retiring soon either as work is starting to pick up again (without the flying bit...) so I am negotiating contracts for my next few assignments. Someone has to do the paperwork and that is my husband's department. Work keeps us out of mischief and the shopping mall, huh???

Take care and be safe. If you can't be safe, at least be dangerous.Bill and Izzie: Proud parents of a soldier.A closed mouth gathers no feet...

I've produced several slideshows for a family\friends over the years and decided late last year to see if I could start a part time buisness creating DVD's. I'm a software developer by trade and also wanted to create some sites to update my web development skills.

I've always used MemoriesOnTV and happened upon Proshow by accident and I've been blown away at just how powerful a piece of software it is. It's convinced me to put some effort into this new venture.

I wasn't sure if this really a viable venture and my sites still need a bit of work but the power and features of Proshow has convinced me it's possible.

Paul, I looked at both your sites and have two suggestions: (1) Give them a touch more "elegance" by simplifying, using just a few decorative embellishments, and also using a font (of which we have precious few on the web) that has a less casual look to it; and (2) redo the slide show using a bit of eye candy for the customer and choosing music that better fits a wedding. Oh, and drop out the explanation of the Ken Burns effect since your customers won't have a clue about it.

A number of people are making at the very least some mad money doing shows as a business, so why not you too? Go for it!

Hi - Gosh it's great reading how everyone got started. Here's my story - Years ago I went to Disney World and the American Exhibit in Epcot - at the end of the show of the history of America, they played a song America's Golden Dream I think and had all sorts of pictures of American memories fly in and out - kind of like a dream. From that moment on, I wanted to do the same thing.

After my mom died, I got a scrapbook program that had bundled with it, software called Picture to TV. I took pictures of my sister, niece and my mom and put them in a slideshow with Martina McBride's song, in my daughter's eyes. After seeing my sister cry, I found my payment. I have always been an amateur photographer, so I then realized how powerful this kind of storytelling tool would be and searched for a better program, which was ProShow Gold. After many upgrades, and seeing so much more I could do on this website (I also do not remember how I got here), a couple of years ago, I moved up to Producer. I still can't really use keyframes or masking and have no real ability in Photoshop, but I love thinking that someday I'll be able to learn these things even at my age. Thank goodness for Styles and Choicebackgrounds for making me look better than I am. Since my first show for my sister, she has passed away too young at 47 years old. Although I did a show for her funeral, it didn't tell her life's story as well as I would have liked - I am hoping to get to go to the Convention to learn some things to help me complete this.I have made many shows for Yearbooks, showers, graduations, weddings, funerals - I am slow at deciding which pictures and what to do with them and take entirely too much time on the shows, but watching people enjoy the show, hearing their "awes" and seeing their miles and tears when they watch the show is the best payment I could receive. Except for this post, I have only posted questions - no shows...yet. I know mine are not near the quality I see here, but maybe someday.........Lori

In the early part of the decade when I got my hands on a copy of Photoshop Elements 2 not really knowing what the heck I was going to do with it. So one day I took out my mothers stash of old photographs. Thought to myself I would add color to them using my imagination. Hehehe, yea right, I saw this button that said "colorize", clicked it and was so disappointed with what happened.. Yea I was a real neophyte when it came to this type of software. I laugh when I think about that now. Anyway through trial and error I finally figured out a way to add the color to the photographs and taught myself how do do this and did a good bunch of them. I stored them away on the hard drive and forgot about them.

In 2004 I got into video editing. I got all my brothers video tapes from his 8mm camcorder and made little shows out of them. One day in 2006 a friend of mine wanted to know if I would do a slide show for her for her sons graduation from University. I said I would even though I had never done this before. What did I get myself into!

I tried using the video editors I was used to and for the most part it worked. Then for some reason I pulled up Google and typed in "slide show software" and one of the search result listings was Proshow. I liked what I saw and bought GOLD. I went on to make my friends show and she was very happy with it. About 6 months later I upgraded to Producer.

Then one day I got a hair brained idea that involved the colorized photos I talked about in the first paragraph above. I thought I'd do a type of "before and after" show that would exibit the photos before colorization and after colorization. Then I thought why not just incorporate them into a type of family history show. Thats how "My Colorized Roots" show came about.

After that show I decided to make a show about my Uncle who is MIA in Korea, and basically did the same thing except I didn't have very many photographs of him to use in the show. So I scanned in his medallians, his last written letter, and a few other things, and used them as filler material. Thats how "The Lost Hero" show came about.

Anyway, I am much like HunnyB in that I mostly do this for family. Lately though I haven't even done that. I haven't upgraded to version 4 yet so I am probably going to have to learn the software all over again as it incorporates new things I've never used before.

Ben, version 4 has several things in it that are wonderful additions--styles and modifiers being primary--but you don't have to have version 4 to produce great shows, and you're proof of this. So, are you planning to get back into it real soon? I'm so glad I can hear you saying, "Well, of course." [Once upon a time I was viewed by several here as the forum nag. You don't want to revive that quality, do you?]

Ben, the interface alone is something that needs getting used to. You may go through what many of us did, which was a thoroughly cranky period because things looked different and we had trouble finding things, but we've all settled back down. It might have been an "old dog w/new tricks" problem.

BarbaraC wrote:Ben, the interface alone is something that needs getting used to. You may go through what many of us did, which was a thoroughly cranky period because things looked different and we had trouble finding things, but we've all settled back down. It might have been an "old dog w/new tricks" problem.:D

Barbara

Ummmm..... I will be the second to admit that. On the other hand, I recall some frustrating bugs in the modifiers and other things that made me think I was losing my mind. That stuff didn't get fixed for about 4-5 months after the initial release. I put the program aside for a while until they fixed it. Things are pretty good now though. I still miss having the larger "copy to end" KF button in between the start and end keyframes where it's easily accessible without accidentally clicking on the "add KF" button !

My introduction is much similar to Lori's. My wife wanted something to put together her grandmother's photos for her 85th birthday party. She bought me a program Photo Explosion Deluxe which included Pictures to TV. Not being much into photography, I really wasn't sure what I was doing or had much interest. For some reason, I really enjoyed scanning, putting together the photos and adding the music into the show. My wife was overwhelmed when she saw my end product. I showed it at her grandmother's birthday party and drew similar reactions.

A friend of ours also saw the slideshow and loved it that she commissioned me to do one for a friend of hers that was retiring from her job. It also drew some rather rave reviews. By now I had wanted to do one for my parents 50th wedding anniversary. I had been looking online for better slideshow software and came upon ProShow Gold. I downloaded the trial evaluation software and put together a quick slideshow and was amazed by the power of this new program. My wife loved it and let me purchase the software. I put together my parent's slideshow and was wowwed by the results. So were my parents, family, and friends. I really started getting a lot of requests from family and friends to work my "magic" on their photos. I did about 20 slideshows over the next 18 months. All were very appreciated and well recieved.

In November of 2008, my wife wanted to update her family's video that was put together by her aunt and done by a professional in the early 90's. I had downloaded the evaluation software for ProShow Producer and really wanted it. My wife (who controls the family purse string) was ripe for the taking when I suggested I upgrade to the better software. I even taught her the basics of the software. I discovered this forum during this process. I also purchased a few books to try bring me up to speed on keyframing. Between all the information I read on here and the "The Book" I am happy to report that her family's slideshow update, despite it being 350 photos, turned out so well. My father-in-law, who is very hard to please, hugged me and thanked me.

About a year ago, our dear friend who had bought me several projects passed away last Labor Day weekend from cervical cancer at the age of 51. I had put together her 50th birthday slideshow as a gift to her. I ended up doing her remembrance slideshow for the funeral. It was truly one of the hardest things I had ever done. Since then I have lost my creative flow.

I have been on a bit of a hiatus from slideshows this past year. Mainly because of that and losing my mother in June. Mom, who was in a nursing home for the past five years, had really loved the slideshow. She played it over and over at the nursing home. I'm hoping I'll get out of this funk soon and get back into doing some. I turned down three projects this summer because of it.

One thing I will say though, I love this software and I truly love this forum and the folks that post on here. You folks have given me a lot of inspiration and guidance over the past year and 3/4. Thank you all for your help and listening to my rambling here. God Bless!!!!